Prodigy
by Gerryy
Summary: Harry has a better grasp on his magic at a younger age, add in a few other abilities and you've got yourself a non-weak Harry! Rejoice :   Follow's plotline.. sort of AU/AR. Mentor Voldemort, fake prophecy.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Don't own.

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><p>The cupboard under the stairs in number four Privet Drive should never have hosted life inside it, unless it was the occasional spider seeking solace inside the dark space that was the cupboard, but it wasn't just spiders that lived under the stairs, no. It was here that a 7 year old Harry Potter lay, nursing his bruises from his recent scrape with the Dursley's and their son. Surely it wasn't his fault that he found himself on the school roof when Dudley and his gang were chasing him. How was he to even get up there? Magic? There was no such thing, his uncle had made sure of that, if such a thing existed why did he lived in a cupboard? Why did the Dursley's use him as a punching bag?<p>

Simple, there was no such thing as magic.

Atleast, that's what Vernon had told him, but Harry knew better, if you could move things with your will alone you were one of two things;

A loony... or a wizard. He didn't think of himself as a loony, sure he heard voices inside his head, but they weren't his, he knew they belonged to other people. He had been able to pick up on the thoughts of other people since as far back as he could remember. It wasn't his fault that he could read people's minds, but he wasn't one to complain either.. it was a lot of fun reading the minds of his classmates, even if they all stayed away from him because of Dudley..

But sometimes it wasn't all fun and games, a lot of pain came with it. The influx of thoughts caused him pain everytime he was in a populated place, granted - that wasn't often but sometimes school was unbearable and left him disorientated for days on end. The worst mind he had seen into was the mind of a murderer, he was insane of course.. It have left Harry a sobbing wreck for days as he relived the criminal's life; one bad memory after another. When there was a memory of him being beaten as a child; Harry felt every blow, it was sometimes too much to deal with.

It was moments like those that he wished he couldn't read minds, that he was just a normal boy with normal problems. But nothing was normal about him, his 'family' were child beaters; not to Dudley, only to him.. and Dudley.. well..

Dudley, that was one mind you didn't want to pick up on.. it was disgusting! He was eight and all he could think about was food, stealing and waiting until school let out so he could have a 'smoke.'

Didn't help much that he was a bit overweight too, he had never really caught Harry in public either, as Harry would know when Dudley was about to get him, when he was about to Harry would go and seek solace in the library. Simple.

But, while he was stuck in the cupboard he didn't really have much to do but lay back on his 'bed', which was actually a mattress from the charity store. It pretty much paid for itself, as the Dursley's only sent him to school to claim benefits. Harry was a smart student though, always coming home with a perfect scorecard of A's or B's, it was worth the beating's Vernon gave him to know that he would become something when he was older, unlike Dudley.

Harry's 'bedroom' was pretty much a mattress on the 'floor' with a shelf which held a few figurines Dudley wanted to throw away, Harry found them though and kept them, they were cool; his only toys. Waving his hand lazily Harry watched as the figurine of the horseman came floating into his hand, he was gaining more control every day. A smile lit up Harry's face as he waved the other hand and the miniature horseman came to life,  
>the horse rearing up while the soldier on it's back laughed and gave the horse a pat on the head.<p>

However his smile turned into a quick frown when he picked up on his uncles thoughts, two stray thoughts that flickered between his one-track mind.. Boy and food. Harry didn't have time to react before the door was wrenched open and light filled the cupboard.  
>Vernon Dursley wasn't the brightest individual but when he wrenched open the cupboard door to find his nephew floating a figurine in mid-air while it moved around by itself he knew the boy could be trouble.<p>

He had come into his freakish ways, he wouldn't be allowed to stay here.. He would ruin their normal lifestyle, their normal neighbourhood and worse yet.. He could corrupt their perfect son!

"Get out." Growled out Vernon. Harry just looked on confused, this had never happened before. Normally Vernon would hit him and screech at him about how his parents were worthless drunks, how HE would be a worthless drunk without anything in his life. But this time? Vernon just told him to get out, no strikes, no shouting.. nothing.

Harry looked on confused.

"You heard me you little freak! Get out of my house! I won't have your abnormalities corrupting my family freak!" Vernon screamed, he had started to turn purple again, as he did every time he got angry.

"You want to know what really happened to your parents brat? They didn't die in a car crash, oh no! They got themselves blown up! They were freaks like you! 'Magical people.' I won't have any of it you hear me boy? I won't have any of it!" growled out Vernon grabbing the front of Harry's shirt, which was actually one of Dudley's which he had grown out of, it was still many sizes too big on Harry.

"Now BOY. You're leaving this house, and you're never coming back.. I don't care where you go, just don't bother us again! FREAK!" roared the puce coloured man, wrenching the door open and throwing his 'nephew' out of it. Harry however was still in shock, this couldn't be happening..  
>The Dursley's had kicked him out..<p>

He was FREE.

But first things first, he would get away from number four, it was already quite late in the day, soon to turn night. He would spend a night in the park and travel on tomorrow morning, he didn't want to be anywhere near Private Drive if he could help it.

The park was getting dark by the time Harry reached it, wasting no time Harry walkd over to the adventure park area, crawling inside the 'house'. The 'house' had a roof on it, which would stop the wind from battering his body. It was also dark, he loved the dark, always had. Everytime he needed comfort, there was always the pitch blackness of the cupboard to embrace him in her shadowy cloak. So it was no surprise that when Harry wished he was somewhere where he could learn magic. Shadows had listened to him before, he had gotten away from Dudley many times by running into a dark space and wishing he were somewhere else.

The need to travel within shadows had stemmed from Halloween, kids trick or treated on the doors and the Dursley's, wanting to act normal had given them a few sweets and sent them on their way while Dudley sat in front of the TV practically inhaling his personal bowl of treats. Harry had never eaten sweets before, he practically lived off bread and water - and he didn't get enough of that anyway. So, while the Dusley's were at the door dealing with some children that were younger than him he had swiped a twix bar, fun sized. Not wanting to be caught he ate it as quickly as possible, savouring the way it melted in his mouth as the textures came together in an amazing flavour..

It wasn't to last, the Dusley's had spotted the wrapper and figured that they would need a pinata for Dudley's entertainment, he was hung up in the Dursley's back garden, hanging from a thin piece of rope from the Dursley's only tree. Vernon gave his son a baseball bat and told him to swing away.

A few broken bones later the rope snapped, as Harry fell to the floor with a dull thud, it was well past midnight as shadows crept across the floor. He had prayed for somewhere safe to heal, cried out for a way to get away from the Dursley's, if only until he was better. He had sunk into a shadow and ended up back in his cupboard. This was somewhere he really didn't want to be, Harry, now six still had no control over where he went in the world as he slipped through a shadow, but it had always taken him where he needed to go.

Maybe one day, when he was older he would be able to go wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted, see the world.. but for now, he would settle for not ending up in a dungeon.

This time however.. The shadows listened to him and took him to a place where he could learn to defend himself.

Somewhere he probably shouldn't have been anywhere near.

No longer in the country.. Harry Potter landed in a forest, located in Albania..


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for the reviews :)

Lady Vonne, I read your one shots but my computer wouldn't let me write a review, don't know why, they're quite well written though :)  
>Enko, I'm afraid I don't know how to make him more neutral, this is my first EVER try at writing. He's also only 7 so he's quite impressionable.<p>

Going to try and make the chapters a little longer.

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><p>Harry Potter landed in the shadow of a tree, disorientated from the travel, that hadn't happened before. Last time he had hopped through shadows he had been fine, found himself on top of roofs or even back in his cupboard. But did he really want to go back to the Dursley's? Would they even take him back?<p>

Hell.. Who was he kidding, he asked for someone that could teach him magic and here he was, in the middle of a forest. There had to be someone here that could. Maybe he could eve...

_Snap!_

Harry's head whirled around so fast that he thought he may have given himself whiplash, someone had just broken a twig under their weight..  
>But there was nobody there. Just dense forest, it must have been playing tricks on him.. There was the sound of a bush rustling..<p>

This turned out to be all too much for the young six year old to bear as he turned on his foot and fled, self-preservance came over his bravery any day! The tree's became a blur as he sped past them as fast as his feet could carry him, that was pretty fast for someone who had been chased for his entire life. Harry thought himself quite lucky for not running straight into any trees, too busy running to even notice the forest gradually growing darker around him, green leaves slowly giving way to sickly dying ones.

The ground was getting harder around this area, everything seemed.. Harry tripped on a branch and flew into a small clearing, a few small holes littered the floor, Harry had only just noticed the shape of the forest around him, everything seemed dead.. The same as he would be if he stayed here much longer.

He started to back away from the clearing until his back came into contact with a tree, he was about to turn around and run until a great snake hung from a branch lowered it's head to face Harry's at it started to hiss violently.

"_Humanss, on the kingss land!_"

"_Hello?_" Harry awnsered back questioningly, only to recoil as a series of hisses left his mouth instead of his usual English, was he speaking to the snake? How exactly could he know another language without knowing it? It wasn't possible, he had probably just insulted the snake in the worst way possible which may result in his death..

He got ready to flee and was about to bolt until the snake spoke back..

"_Sspeaker? I musst tell the king.. Wait here tiny human._" Now that was creepy, speaking to snakes felt a little weird, but Harry was glad that he could, he had never before.. but they seemed a lot nicer than the Dursley's ever were.. Maybe he could make friends here or even learn magic from the snakes! That seemed to be all that was around here anyway..

But Harry did as he was told and waited by the dying tree, the forest was out of the way, he'd give it that. The perfect hiding place, he doubted many people had the courage to come looking in here anyway, it was quite a desolate land anyway..

He was just about to move to take a look around until an eight foot python with glowing red eyes slithered out of one of the bigger holes. The eyes reminded him of his own.. a little, his forehead started to prickle a little bit but apart from that nothing unusual happened, the snakes eyes seemed to widen a little, it was quite hard to notice but the slits widened slightly for a few seconds before returning to their slitted red state.

"_Harry Potter..._" The snake ground out slowly, it seemed as if it held some resentment towards him, as if there was a past grudge that had yet to have been settled, but as Harry always said; Forgive and Forget. Everyone deserved a second chance, but no more past that.

Harry knew he would never forgive the Dursley's for what they did, they had their second chances, third, fourth and on.. but they never stopped to ask him if he needed help with chores that should have been Dudley's, if he ever needed something to eat, drink or even if he needed medical attention.. of course he needed medical attention, he had the scars to prove it.

"_Hello!_" Hissed out Harry happily, he might even make his first friend here, lots of people had wanted to be his friend in his primary school, but Dudley had always scared them off, especially towards the end of the year when people started to get... quite friendly, especially the girls. He never really understood why, but he always gave them a sad smile and told them not to get caught around him or Dudley would get them.

"_You've had a childhood that ressembless my own.. Do you want to hurt them back..?_" The snake questioned softly, it shouldn't have been possible for it to feel compassion for another being, especially considering who the 'snake' was.. But he felt a connection with this boy, as if part of his soul...

That's it! He, the king of the serpents.. had made a mistake.

He had made a horcrux that night, the reason the curse had failed was because of the ritual he had put on himself, if he was to ever try to destroy one of his own horcrux's whatever he shot at it would be relflected back at him.. He couldn't harm this boy unless he shared his blood...

But maybe he wouldn't have to.

"_Hurt?_" It was such a strong word, along with hate.. but if all people were like Vernon and Petunia no child should have to go through what he did..

"_Yess Harry... Do you want them to feel how you did? Do you want to make them ssuffer?_" Prodded the snake.  
><em>They didn't just harm you Harry.. they hit other children your age for not being friends with Dudley...<em>" The snake continued, still reading the boy's mind, if seemed as if he was a natrual legillimens as he was picking up on the thoughts of others around him, perhaps even a shadow mage if he could warp through the shadows.. he would be a powerhouse when he was older.  
>But as of right now he was a gullible six year old boy and seven year olds were rather.. impressionable.. he would be able to shape him into an heir if he played his cards right. He would have to be.. fair.. By the time he returned to his body the boy would be stronger than his weaker death eaters.. Ready to take his place at the Dark Lords side, as his right hand man.. his heir.<p>

He wasn't the Heir of Slytherin for no reason, though sometimes he thought that title should have been Dumbledore's to bear, the manipulative fool, he usually meant well but his schemes for popularity usually ended up hurting all those involved. He had wanted to give the boy a childhood,  
>instead he had given him nothing but pain and suffering.. A sentence on par with six years in Azkaban.<p>

Looking up with determination, Harry stared straight into the eyes of the snake. He was only six.. he could deal with them hitting him, he was used to it, but they had hit other children? The other parents had seemed to care for their children when they had come and got them from his primary school.. maybe not all people were evil, but the Dursley's certainly the worst of the worst..

They always said he was a waste of space, a useless freak. A waste of breath so they had tried to beat the life out of him..

If the snake would, he was going to pay them back in earnest..

"_Yess_." Harry awnsered simply, seeing the snakes eyes light up.

"_Excellent Harry... I will teach you magic.. My name iss Tom Marvolo Riddle.. otherwise known as Lord Voldemort.. but you can call me My lord..__or Father._" smiled Voldemort..

Smiles looked strange on snakes.


	3. Chapter 3

Right; I've got a problem with writing - as some of you might know I don't write often and when I do I seem to do it.. wrong? I guess.  
>I'll write a chapter and go back and re-read it but I can't ever think of anything else to put in it. So I pretty much end up with a Draft that I'll end up posting?<br>Anyone here that writes and wants to give me a tip on how to make my writing better? or how to go back and make it even better?

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><p>Three years later and Harry Potter still remained in the Albanian Forest with his 'Father', learning to control his abilities, apparently the only thing he had needed to do to stop unconsciously reading minds was to learn occlumency; the art of shielding ones mind. He was no-where near as good as he would have liked to have been in any of his skills, but he was only nine, he was more than likely one of the strongest magical nine year olds on the face of the earth.<p>

Of course; he still couldn't travel exactly where he wanted with shadows, but it was getting easier. He had actually ended up at the right place sometimes, but other times he wasn't so fortunate. One time he had ended up somewhere in France, he had ended up being launched out of a shadow being cast from an elegant castle, he had gotten quite a few strange looks from the girls dressed in blue robes as he landed in front of them, barely landing on his feet. With a roguish grin and a wink he turned around and run back into the shadow, unaware of the few blushes he had earned for his actions.. Nonetheless, he had ended back up in the Albanian Forest after another few 'stops'.

He hadn't learned any actual magic yet though, due to him not having a wand - neither did his mentor, as he still hovered round the general area in his wraith form or in the form of a large snake that he possessed on occasion, the snakes were more than willing to give him their bodies as they believed him to be some kind of snake god visiting them from the heavens.

There also wasn't much you could do with wandless magic, it didn't matter how powerful the witch or wizard was, skin just apparently didn't make a good magic concentrator. The best a wizard could hope to do with offensive wandless magic was to transfigure and animate something to fight for them or simply use the wandless banisher, for defence however there was a lot of imagination involved, you could transfigure the floor into a towering stone wall to block curses, summon things into the path of spells.

However they were hard to cast and few were born with the pure magical power to use wandless magic. Harry had been summoning and animating since he lived at the Dursley's, it was a good hobby and staved of the boredom, distracted him from his hunger and thirst..  
>However he was trying to perfect his wandless banisher, but it simply wouldn't come to him, the concept was easy; force magic through your hand as if throwing a gust of wind..<p>

But it wasn't that simple, it took a lot of practice. Voldemort had told him that when he had his body, he could cast a wandless banisher out of his entire body, literally blowing a clearing around him as his magic forced everything around him to fly away. It had taken him years to perfect, seven in fact.

Harry had been practicing for 3 years now; and he could barely throw a rock across a clearing.. and that was only on occasion!

He wanted it done by Hogwarts.

All of Harry's goals he wanted completed by Hogwarts; He wanted to be able to 'shadow travel' almost perfectly by Hogwarts..  
>He wanted to have mastered his wandless banisher by Hogwarts..<br>He wanted to be a master legillimens by Hogwarts..

Technically he already was a master legillimens, natural mind readers were classed as dangerous though, then again.. most uncommon traits were classed as 'dark' by the ministry.

His "Father" had put him through a ritual a few weeks before, the results were still astounding to him. Before he was a malnourished skinny boy without a hint of muscle on him, quick reflexes mind you..

But now.. after ingesting the blood of a vampire he had changed, the benefits were too good to pass up, though he was only nine he would never have to exercise for his body to grow stronger, it would grow with him in endurance, strength, speed and reflexes. Here stood Harry Potter, no longer a skinny child who wore thick rimmed glasses on his face. No, they had broken long ago where his first shadow travel had gone wrong as he smashed into a wall.

Now there stood Harry Potter, the nine year old with the athletic build, defined muscles, messy black hair and no glasses. His father had fixed his eyesight for him, while not as powerful as he would have been if he had a corporeal form, Voldemort was still plenty powerful.

The only downside to the ritual however was that his eyes changed with his mood. Normally an emerald green, if he got angry they would change to a blood red shade, but was it really a downside? They were nearly the same shade as his fathers; and maybe one day they would stay red permanently, or he would be able to control the colour some way.

They were so alike; Voldemort and Harry...

But together; they would change the world. No longer would children be beaten by abusive relatives, no longer would a magical child be introduced into the magical world on their eleventh birthday just because their parents were muggles.  
>No, if there was a muggleborn child they would be replaced with a squib, that was their goal. They both knew that within a thousand years if there was no new blood introduced into the wizarding world every pureblood would be so inbred that magic would simply fade from existence.<p>

A few hundred years ago this wouldn't have been possible, as there were less squibs being born compared to muggleborns.. but with the amount of inbreeding to keep the families 'pure' more and more squibs were being born daily.

The wizarding world would finally be safe, they would distance themselves completely from the muggle community. Maybe the muggles weren't all bad,  
>and Harry accepted that. But some were, Mankind feared what it didn't understand; that was why magical creatures had started to distance themselves from the muggle world; if they didn't they would be simply hunted out of existence.<p>

Muggles were cruel, it was the bottom line. They feared the wizarding world, so they hated it.. If you performed an act of magic in front of a group of muggles it would probably end in your death. It was a shame, there were some genuinely nice people living in the world.

It was why Harry wasn't going to destroy the Muggle world; those few people were by far the minority but they were enough to save the world from utter destruction at the hand of his father.

His father had been teaching him the finer points of magic, he knew the theory behind a lot of spells, but didn't have a wand to put them into practice, but today that would change. Today he was going to attempt to shadow travel to Diagon Alley, his father had possessed a man today before he changed a few notes of muggle currency into several galleons, he wouldn't be able to go to Diagon Alley with Harry, he couldn't run the risk of being recognised.

It was for that same reason that Harry couldn't visit Gringotts today, Voldemort knew that Dumbledore had Harry's key in his possession and once the goblins retained it, he would know that Harry had been in the wizarding world and was currently in Gringotts.

It wouldn't end well for him to realise that Voldemort had been raising him, he would be obliviated and returned to the Dursley's and who knows how much he would obliviate. He might even put the binds back on his magic, Harry and his father had taken forever to get rid of them and finally they were gone.

It was time to go anyway.

Harry walked into the dearest shadow and focussed as hard as he could on Diagon Alley, the world shifted around him as he melted into the shadow, he became the shadow, whatever a shadow touched he could move there freely.

Diagon Alley was finally coming into vision, a small grin twitched at Harry's mouth as the Alley came closer...

...Only to zoom away as Harry lost his train of thought, he was once again launched out of a shadow and ended up at the same castle in France..

The girls were back.. giggling once again, covering their mouths with a hand.

"Damnit.. piece of..." Harry trailed off, muttering obscenities under his breath but he soon looked up and gave the same roguish grin as he gave last time, he may have only been nine, but his father had been giving him lessons into charming the fairer sex. It was all part of being a dark lord,  
>you would have to be cunning, quick on your feet, powerful and of course charming.<p>

"Comment vous appelez-vous?" (What is your name)Questioned a pretty platinum blonde haired girl, she had icy blue eyes, appeared to be in her second year.. she had an aura about her.

"Je m'appelle Harry P.." (My name is Harry P..) Wait a second, he wasn't meant to give out his name.. Meh, it's not like it would matter, they were in France. He would probably never see them again even if this was the second time this had happened..

"pouvez-vous parler anglais?" (Do you speak English?) Questioned Harry, he wasn't going to stay for long.. but he might as well say goodbye in his native tongue.. though that may be Parsletongue now..

"Yes." Replied the girl in a thick accent, it was strange talking English in France, the same it would be speaking French in the Albanian Forest with Voldemort.

"Cool, well... I've got to run, bye!" Harry called from over his shoulder as he walked into a shadow.. concentrating as hard as he possibly could on entering the wand shop in Knockturn Alley. Olivanders reported to Dumbledore after all, he told him every wand that was sold.

"I'm Fleu..!" Cried the girl, but he couldn't catch the end of the sentence as he had already started to warp into the shadow, until he flew out with a thud, he had only just caught himself from landing on his face.

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><p>He was soon on his way out of the shop, it had taken a few hours.. but he was now the proud owner of a Yew and Demon blood wand, excellent for duelling the man had said, great for the offensive spells.<p>

At least he finally had a wand now, but it was two more years before he would ever step foot inside Olivanders, it was still two years before he was allowed to get himself a familiar.. and it was still two years before he would finally end up in Hogwarts, under the watchful eye of one Albus Dumbledore.


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